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Besides lifting off the seat, if you open the driver's door while the car is in drive, and then try to creep forward, it may slam into park as some sort of safety feature. Mine has done this a couple of times when I opened the door to check space alignment and then tried to ease into the space. Scared the crap out of me...

This is the same exact scenario as happened to my husband while in a fast food drive through. Went to get wallet to pay; his weight shift was enough for the sensor to say ok, you must have exited the vehicle. Confusing at first.

Sometimes when I park the car and get out, I decide I am too far from the front curb and should move up. I'll get back in the car and move it forward with the door open and with the seat belt off. The car does not shift into park. Rather, it flashes on the display in front of the steering wheel that the driver's door is open, and the car chimes.

Besides lifting off the seat, if you open the driver's door while the car is in drive, and then try to creep forward, it may slam into park as some sort of safety feature. Mine has done this a couple of times when I opened the door to check space alignment and then tried to ease into the space. Scared the crap out of me...

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Interesting... I do that the odd time and have not had that happen. All I get is a warning message on the dash about "proceeding with caution" and the constant dual beep tone.

Interesting... I do that the odd time and have not had that happen. All I get is a warning message on the dash about "proceeding with caution" and the constant dual beep tone.

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Ok, I may actually be running into the same lifting off the seat issue and the shifting into park has nothing to do with the door being open. It has only happened while the door is open, but now that I think of it, perhaps I'm leaning out a little to see my alignment in the space and lifting up off the seat. Will have to try it next time I get in the car.

Ok, I may actually be running into the same lifting off the seat issue and the shifting into park has nothing to do with the door being open. It has only happened while the door is open, but now that I think of it, perhaps I'm leaning out a little to see my alignment in the space and lifting up off the seat. Will have to try it next time I get in the car.

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...or maybe in the open door scenario it only shifts the car into park if it was in drive with the door closed and then the door was opened. Perhaps if you get into the car, leave the door open, and shift into "D" it does allow you to pull forward with warning indicator and chimes. but if you're already seated with door closed and in drive you can't then open the door without the car shifting into park. This would make sense as the car is "thinking" that you're exiting when you open the door so it shifts into park. Or, as others have speculated, perhaps it's entirely the result of lifting off the seat. That happened to me as I lifted off the seat to reach for change a few days ago. It's easy enough to test, anyway.

...or maybe in the open door scenario it only shifts the car into park if it was in drive with the door closed and then the door was opened. Perhaps if you get into the car, leave the door open, and shift into "D" it does allow you to pull forward with warning indicator and chimes. but if you're already seated with door closed and in drive you can't then open the door without the car shifting into park. This would make sense as the car is "thinking" that you're exiting when you open the door so it shifts into park. Or, as others have speculated, perhaps it's entirely the result of lifting off the seat. That happened to me as I lifted off the seat to reach for change a few days ago. It's easy enough to test, anyway.

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I think the key is whether your seat belt is on or off. I've opened my door to peer out while backing up (i.e. car was already in gear) and did not have it go into Park. But I did keep my seat belt on. I get the dual beep alarm and the warning message about "proceeding with caution" but that's it.

Hmm that's a good insight. I'll try it with seatbelt on and lifting butt.

One time I was in the car wash and leaned over to get something in the back seat and the car shifted into park!
quite scary as the pushing roller forced its way under the tire, lifting the car. I hastily put it back into neutral and luckily there wasn't another car right behind.

Interesting... I do that the odd time and have not had that happen. All I get is a warning message on the dash about "proceeding with caution" and the constant dual beep tone.

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Mine didn't used to do this, but started around 6.0 or so. I find it kind of annoying. It's hard to get the car in my garage spot, and my parking sensors malfunction constantly, so sometimes it helps to check alignment with the door open. I'm slowly pulling in and BAM, it slams itself into park. :-/